SHELTER FOR UNHOUSED NEIGHBORS WITH TERMINAL ILLNESS

“Jim” was a regular guest at the day shelter where I was working. He was a pleasant guy, a Vietnam veteran in his 70s and a fixture in the homeless community—one of those guys everyone knows and everyone seems to like.

I had a fair amount of contact with Jim. He always had some material need he was hoping to have fulfilled by the shelter. Usually there wasn’t much I could do for him, but he was fun to talk to and he seemed to need a listening ear as much as anything.

He was a frequent flier at the nearby hospital where they’d check him in for an afternoon or maybe overnight and check him out in basically the same state he was in before his visit. 

• Truth be told, anyone who cared to pay attention could tell Jim was dying. We knew it. The hospital knew it. Jim knew it. But there was nowhere for him to go.

One morning a couple of Jim’s friends came in and said they found him dead by his cart on the side of the road not far from the overpass where they camped. It wasn’t a surprise but it was still a tragedy. Jim saw death coming for him. 

Jim died with dignity because he lived with dignity. But he deserved to die in a bed, with a blanket over his body, a roof over his head, and someone to care for his hurts and listen to his fears. But without a place for that care to be given, Jim died in the place he knew best: on the side of the road, next to his cart, alone. 

We owe it to Jim to do better for people like him, who deserve the same care Jim deserved, the same care all of us deserve at the end of our life.

Logan Robinson, Pastor/Director, AfterHours Denver